The spiritual heirs of Abraham are all who are embraced in the saving and
atoning covenant of grace in Christ. I do not say all who believe, for
there will be more in heaven without faith than those with—namely, all
those who have died before the years of responsibility, with many of the
Pagan world who, never having heard of a Saviour, have therefore never
denied Him. In a spiritual sense, they are children. I believe in this
matter with Paul, who says, when writing to the Romans, chap. ii.: “There
is no respect of persons with God; for as many as have sinned without law
shall also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law
shall be judged by the law. For when the Gentiles, which have not the
law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the
law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in
their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts
the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing one another.” Thus, under the
law which governs the Pagan, I presume many will be saved and many lost,
just as under the law of the Gospel. In Abraham all nations were to be
blessed, spiritually. In this sense Abraham’s seed embraces persons of
every age, clime, and race.
But who are the seed of Abraham according to the flesh? We answer, the
descendants of the Twelve Tribes. Now to the natural seed the Bible
assigns a distinct work and place. This natural seed is divided in the
Bible, the word Israel standing generally for the Ten Tribes, and Judah
for Two Tribes. These divisions have separate paths appointed them to
walk in through the centuries. “All the House of Israel wholly,” “the
whole House of Israel,” “all the House of Israel,” have a special work.
The Ten Tribes are especially called in the Scriptures the seed of
Abraham. Sometimes “My chosen,” again “Mine inheritance,” and “My
servant.” God, in referring to them in their scattered state, and of His
gathering them together, says (Isa. xli. 8): “But thou, Israel, art My
servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen; the seed of Abraham My friend—thou
whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the
chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art My servant; I have chosen
thee and not cast thee away.” The Ten Tribes are sometimes designated by
the word Jacob. If we once get a clear idea who the seed are, then we
can search among the people of the earth to find them, because in the
latter day they were to be so different from other people, and distinctly
marked, we will have no great difficulty in finding them. Of the special
marks, one was they were to possess the gates of their enemies. The
multitudinous seed and other characteristics we will pass by for the
present.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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